Leadership Institute (Leadership Institute)

The Leadership Institute was founded in 1979 by Morton C. Blackwell, and is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization located in Arlington, Virginia that teaches "political technology." The Institute's mission is to "identify, train, recruit and place conservatives in politics, government, and media" through a variety of programs offered at the Institute's Arlington headquarters or at its many training seminars held around the United States, and occasionally in foreign countries. In 2007, the Institute trained 6,787 people in 470 training programs of 39 types. As of August 2008, the Leadership Institute had trained more than 62,000 students. During the fall of 2006, its Campus Leadership Program sent out 60 field representatives to help conservative students create independent campus groups. In February 2008, the Institute published a directory of 1,015 active campus groups currently in its Campus Leadership Program; 203 of those groups were published conservative campus newspapers or magazines.

Philosophy and curriculum

While the Institute does not provide instruction in philosophical conservatism, it does encourage its graduates to read classic conservative authors like Edmund Burke and "classical liberal" authors like Frederic Bastiat, as well as more more modern conservative thinkers including William F. Buckley Jr., Milton Friedman, Russell Kirk, Barry Goldwater, and libertarian thinkers such as F. A. Hayek.



The Leadership Institute teaches 41 different types of classes and seminars using its own curriculum. Class content varies from teaching how to create a campus newsletter to political activism (i.e. grassroots activism) to professional training and development (i.e. broadcast journalism). The Institute's website lists its schools and o